The Shading Course

Practice: Terminator Studies

Lesson by

Dorian Iten

inThe Shading Course

4.7K

Mark as Completed

Assignments 98

Lesson Notes

Practice: Terminator Studies

Lesson by

Dorian Iten

in The Shading Course

4.7K

Mark as Completed

Assignments 98

Lesson Notes

Overview

In this project, you'll draw different objects from life, looking specifically for the terminator.

Materials

Pencil
Paper
Eraser
An object to draw

White or light objects with matte (not shiny) surfaces are ideal. Good examples are toilet paper rolls, eggs, garlic, paper cups, folded paper, etc. You can also cover any object with white paint and then draw it. 😀 For now, avoid shiny objects, such as glossy ceramic. Avoid complex objects unless you have plenty of time to draw.

Example

Steps

Set up your object and lighting, so you can clearly see the terminator. Direct sunlight usually works well. If you are indoors, make sure you only have one light source shining on your object.
Sketch the object, emphasizing the terminator.
Tone in the form shadow and cast shadow, each with a flat, unified tone.
If you like, you can color the terminator in red and the cast shadow in blue.
Take a photo of your object and your sketch and combine them into one image. (If you don't have Photoshop or similar, you can use Canva.com.)

Duration

This project should take 30–60 minutes to complete.

Common Mistake: Rendering

Don't render/shade the drawing. Just focus on identifying the terminator.

Common Mistake: Breaking the Shadow Family

Keep the tonal value unified across both the form shadow and cast shadow areas.

@arminwidmann

•

10d

@samanthelle

•

15d

One image directly scanned and another edited. Very messy. I may repeat this one.

Mahfam Zohrabi

•

3mo

Aubrey Hannah

•

4mo

Here's my submission for the terminator studies. Shading came out a little bit rough since I was aiming for some quick sketches, but I think I got the concept.

Morif

•

6mo

Here is my assignments

Maria Bygrove

•

9mo

Trying something a little more complicated than a hat :) There is some light on the model's right cheek too and I'm not sure how to handle it. Is it reflected light? Does it still fall under core shadow?

Maria Bygrove

•

9mo

@doublejon

•

10mo

Christian Zinser

•

10mo

I'll keep on working with this, I'm starting to see terminators and cast shadows everywhere! Sorry for the so-so drawings, I'll post better ones once I learn how to draw! :*)

Dedee Anderson Ganda

•

10mo

Some are google images, I'll do more later

Aurora

•

11mo

I also took some images from Pinterest to study

@delia

•

11mo

@tonyhcf

•

11mo

@aamado

•

1yr

Roland Karafa

•

1yr

Josh Fiddler

•

1yr

Good effort. Simpler forms would be better for avoiding traps. For instance, with the Raybans case, that forward edge might just be a dark half tone and not a shadow at all, since it's on the lit side and the surface is rounded. Pencil test would answer that question. And the controller has a lot of complex plane changes and a couple of local colour changes.

Marcy Pineda

•

1yr

It was a bit challenging to do it straight from observation since the cast shadows were diffused just based off my light lamp. I’m also not sure how to shade or draw diffused cast shadow so I tried my best 😭 Anyways, critiques are welcome! :)

Josh Fiddler

•

1yr

Hey, it's been a while and maybe you've figured this part out but for others following, I thought I'd say something about your issues. Overall, I'd say you did alright. The diffuse cast shadow can be understood from considering the light source and what impacts shadow shapes and qualities. Notice that the penumbra is quite large in both references. Going back to the earlier materials, that's because the light source is so close to the object. Remember, a lightbulb is somewhere between an area source and a point source and when it's as close as it is in your photos, the rays hitting it will have a very wide cone and so on the far side of the subject, the cast shadow is quite long but also the penumbra will be stretched and even more diffuse (the light is glancing off the bottles at really shallow angles and scatters the light). Another issue is that the tabletop is somewhat more reflective that is helpful. That desk has a coating that makes it more reflective. Try to use something more matte, like a sheet of printer paper or if you have it, a large sheet of plain newsprint. You want to minimize the variety of colours and textures that might skew your eye's recognition of values as you build facility with recognizing value simple contrasts.